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Barrister, Attorney

Category: Estate Law

Satisfied Customers: 25965

Experience: 14 yrs estate law, real estate. Wills/Trusts/Probate

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My father past away, we can not find a will. There is kids

Customer Question

My father past away, we can not find a will. There is kids from a 2nd. marriage, they have already cleaned out the house and some of the items were high dollar items, (coins, stamps, $100,000 plus). What can we do to stop them till we can get help to stop them? Everyone we talk to tell us we need a Death Certificate. (4 to 5 weeks)????

Hello and thank you for using JA! My goal is to provide you with excellent service and help with your legal problem..Has anyone filed to open a probate case to settle his estate and be appointed Administrator (if there is no will)?.Can anyone move in the house to safeguard it while this process is ongoing?..ThanksBarrister

They tell us we need a death cert. No we can not move in. Grand kid from other family lives there. She tells them they can't take the stuff, she goes to work, comes home and the things are gone, call the police and they say civil matter. Over weekend they took a back-hoe, called the police, civil matter!!

I know that typically they will require a death certificate to be filed along with a petition to open a probate estate, but in some cases they will allow you to file to be appointed and then just submit the death certificate when you receive it. I have been able to get that done for clients in the past when things like this were happening and the assets of the estate were at risk of being looted..So if you talk to a local estate law attorney, my bet is that he can get a judge to appoint someone as Administrator to protect the estate assets until the death certificate comes in or a will is found..But other than having someone there all the time and taking an inventory of the items so you know what was there, this would be the only other route to secure the assets of the estate..At the bare minimum, a list of items that were there should be compiled while it is fresh in everyone's mind and who took them (if known) so that once someone is formally named as Administrator, they can pursue the people who took things civilly and crimnally for theft..

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Thanks.

Barrister

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If you need further help, just reply to me via the “REPLY” button and I will be happy to continue.

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I cannot enter into an attorney client relationship, this is a public forum, and all posts are available for public viewing.There is no duty of confidentiality that attaches to any posts. The information provided is not a substitute for a local attorney’s legal advice.

Darlene again, Is it trespassing when we are his heirs. The kids from his 2nd marriage are the ones taking everything. They came with his 2nd wife, No Blood or Adoption. She died 2 years ago. Can we pad lock the place up till we can get a administrator appointed ?

I would opine that no judge or prosecutor in the country would charge you with trespassing if you are taking steps to secure the estate property to prevent further theft by the other people..As for padlocking it up, if the one grandchild is living there, then they could cut the lock and there would be nothing that anyone could do about it because they are a legal resident there...ThanksBarrister

Darlene again, The Granddaughter ( no blood to my father ) from 2nd marriage has a hand written paper, stating that in the event that my dad and his second wife would die together then everything would go to her. but his second wife has been deceased for three years. she is to go have that paper probated today, what does that actually mean. and what are our rights because we still do not have a administater of his estate. is it to late to still get this done, even though she has that piece of paper.

This is called a "holographic will" and would be valid if it meets 3 requirements in WV. First, the entire will must be in the handwriting of the testator. Any words not in the testator’s handwriting will be excluded from the will. Second, a holographic will must be signed by the testator with either a signature or a mark intended as a signature. The will does not have to be signed by any witnesses. The third requirement for a holographic will is that it must have testamentary intent, meaning that the writer must have intended to dispose of their property..So even though she may try to admit it to probate, you can still file to be Administrator and object to the writing as invalid. It would then be up to the judge to decide whether it is a valid holographic will or whether default state law will control..

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Thanks.

Barrister

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If you need further help, just reply to me via the “REPLY” button and I will be happy to continue.

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I cannot enter into an attorney client relationship, this is a public forum, and all posts are available for public viewing.There is no duty of confidentiality that attaches to any posts. The information provided is not a substitute for a local attorney’s legal advice.

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